NIU Sweeps Doubleheader at Home, Defeats IPFW 7-0, Chicago State 6-1The Huskies won all but two individual matches on the day

Dor Amir

Jan. 24, 2014

ROCKFORD, Ill. - The Huskies hosted their first two home games of the young men's tennis season, and the results were favorable for the home team. At the Boylan Tennis Center on Friday afternoon, NIU bested two teams. First up was Chicago State, a match that NIU won 6-1. Later on, the Huskies faced the IPFW Mastodons and won 7-0. With these two wins, NIU improved its record to 2-1.

"Just looking at our scores, anyone would think it was a good day," said Head Coach Patrick Fisher. "In reality, our level of intensity was disappointing. We did not play with a lot of fire and that starts with our leaders. We have to get better at this as a team from start to finish, not just sometimes."

To kick off the day's festivities, NIU and Chicago State played a few doubles matches. Aside from the No. 1 match, these contests weren't all that close. Axel Lagerlof and Dor Amir had the toughest task in the No. 1 against Mario Loboa and Sergui Mureson, but the Huskie tandem was able to pull out the 6-4 victory. NIU easily won the No. 2 and No. 3 matches, sealing the doubles point for the team.

In singles play, the Cougars got one back from NIU, taking the No. 1 match. It was the longest battle of the first match, one which featured Mureson and Lagerlof heading to a tiebreak. Mureson was able to get his team on the board in the end, defeating Lagerlof 4-6, 6-3, 10-4. The rest of singles play featured dominating performances by the Huskies however. Amir, Frederic Cadieux, Jovan Zeljkovic, Simon Formont, and Carlos Manzanas all won their matches in straight sets. Cadieux was particularly impressive. In the No. 3, he didn't allow his opponent to take a single game, defeating Julian Chavez 6-0, 6-0.

Add it all up, and the Huskies won the first match 6-1, evening their team record at 1-1. Next up was IPFW, another match in which NIU would show dominance.

The Huskies nearly took all of the doubles matches in this one. It came down to a tiebreak in the No. 3 match between Cadieux and Formont of NIU and Jonathan Raa and Karl Wangensten-Oye of IPFW. NIU took a narrow defeat here, 6-5 (3), but thanks to the efforts of Amir, Lagerlof, Zeljkovic, and Matt Lynch, the Huskies won the No. 1 and No. 2 matches, grabbing the doubles point for the team.

The Huskies swept singles play, giving the team a 7-0 victory, and improving their record to 2-1. Matches were much closer in this affair than in the one against Chicago State, but the Huskies were able to come away with each victory. The toughest one came in the No. 5, with Manzanas facing Martin Muadi. Manzanas hung in there the whole way, eventually winning 6-5, 5-6, 11-9.

The Huskies will remain at home to face their next opponent, Southern Illinois. That match will be on Friday, January 31 at 5:00 p.m.